U.S. Space and Rocket Center gets space shuttle maneuvering engine

View full sizeOverlooking the space shuttle display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Al. (The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville will receive a space shuttle orbital maneuvering engine for display as NASA begins parceling out parts of the shuttles. The shuttle program is ending in June after two more flights.

"It's fantastic," Center Director Dr. Deborah Barnhart said shortly after the announcement. "Anything having to do with propulsion, that's us." Barnhart was referring to the fact that the shuttle's propulsion system was developed and managed at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Among those allocations were:* Various shuttle simulators for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum of McMinnville, Ore., and Texas A&M's Aerospace Engineering Department* A full fuselage trainer for the Museum of Flight in Seattle* A nose cap assembly and crew compartment trainer for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio* A flight deck pilot and commander seats for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston

Barnhart said the museum here contains the only full "stack" of a life-size shuttle model complete with external fuel tank and solid rocket motors. When the last shuttle flies in June, she said, the museum will be only place visitors can see an external tank, because the tanks burn up on re-entry after a shuttle launch.